Sequel To Feud Billed As A Potboiler But Vidal And Mailer Keep

It Tame

November 20, 1985|By Kenneth R. Clark, Media writer.

If the celebrity-studded crowd that jammed New York`s Royale theater Sunday night came to see blood drawn in the most famous feud since the Hatfields and the McCoys had their falling out, they went home disappointed. Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer, who have been at each other`s throats in print columns and talk shows for more than a decade, came on stage less like wounded tigers than a pair of well-fed, if disparate, cats.

They agreed on just about everything, including the proposition that the country, led by a captive president and a war-mongering cabal of the wealthy, is going to hell in a garbage truck that can be stopped only by a national refusal to pay taxes.

The occasion was one of several forums matching up famous authors for the edification and entertainment of rich literati who have ponied up $1,000 each in support of PEN America Center`s effort to host the International Writers Congress in January. PEN America, part of a worldwide writers` advocacy group, needs $750,000 for the event. Mailer and Vidal drew the heaviest crowd to date, seasoned with the likes of Paul Newman and wife, Joanne Woodward, Diane Keaton and Roy Scheider, but the anticipated fight never got into Round 1.

Vidal, a natty, urbane model of acerbic wit, led off with a joke that set the tone of his discourse.

``This is a very sad day for the world of literature,`` he said without the hint of a smile. ``President Reagan`s library burned down. Both books were destroyed. The tragedy was, he had not finished coloring the second one.``

Vidal then delivered an exquisitely crafted ``essay`` on the demise of the ``American empire,`` strangled by an arms race he said was invented solely to line the pockets of the rich. With its new status as ``a debtor nation,``

he said, the United States now is subordinate to the new Asian empire of Japan.

``As a result (of the arms race), the world is no safer, the United States is a lot poorer and the rich have become a great deal richer,`` he said. ``As early as 1950, Albert Einstein understood the nature of the ripoff. He said the men who possess great power in this country have no intention ever of ending the cold war. Thirty-five years later, they are still at it, making money while the nation itself declines to 11th place in world per capita income, 46th in literacy and $2 trillion in debt. This summer, the money power shifted to Tokyo and that was the end of the American empire. Now the long-feared Asiatic colossus takes its turn as a world leader and those of us who belong to the white race have become the yellow man`s burden. Let us hope he will treat us more kindly than we did him.``

``Reagan was elected to do three things: cut taxes for the rich, eliminate corporate taxation and keep the Defense Department rich,`` he said. ``He`s done all three.``

A rumpled Mailer, shuffling and weaving like an old fighter struggling to remember days in the ring, fumbled with hand-written notes, frequently losing both his place and his train of thought, but his theme echoed that of his erstwhile enemy. In a stream-of-consciousness ramble, he ranged from health care (``the more often one goes to see a doctor, the greater chance he has of contracting cancer``) to architecture (``airports look like prisons, synagogues look like ski resorts and ski resorts look like airports``) to plastic (``a proliferation of worldwide schlock``) to the Soviet Union, which he said in its own best self-interest should guarantee the security of Israel and open emigration for Jews who wish to leave.

``The Russians could trade their Jews to Israel in return for a flood of Israeli technicians to help their economy,`` he said. ``Then they`d have strong, arrogant, Israeli Jews to detest instead of ailing dissidents.``

Like Vidal, Mailer proved no fan of President Reagan.

``We don`t have good presidents any more,`` he said. ``We have charming presidents like Reagan, but we don`t have good presidents. We don`t have serious presidents. Take someone like Maggie Thatcher. I`m not fond of her politics, but she is an extraordinary politician. If politicians were athletes, Maggie Thatcher would be a blue-chip athlete and Reagan would be a scrub. Without the media, Reagan would not be a politician at all. He is the first creature of the media to run this country.``

Mailer called the Reagan administration`s invasion of Grenada ``musical comedy as fascism,`` and dubbed Reagan ``the leading actor in an on-going soap opera.``